Issues

The boom in Canadian mining in Latin America is a complex phenomenon that raises a number of important and overlapping issues. Some of these are social in nature (for instance, the implications of large scale extractives for indigenous peoples); others are environmental (eg. what are the impacts of industrial mines on local watersheds); and still others are political ( what place should mining play in development agendas). Each of these issues, and more besides, have generated a sizeable literature of publications within the academic literature and within the ‘grey’ literature produced by institutions, government, industry and civil society.

Indeed, a decade ago relatively little was published on Canadian mining in Latin America, whereas today there is a steady outpouring of work and opinion. In an effort to help interested individuals navigate this literature, student members of MICLA have prepared overview essays and accompanying bibliographies. These are meant to provide a tour of a given issue and a commented selection of further leads.